The Official Cast The X-Men 2020 Thread

[Ricochet Rita]

Max Mauff // Nightcrawler

Charlize Theron would be a perfect Emma Frost.

Michael Cera as Arcade

Yes, yes and yes.

[Ricochet Rita]

Works for DARPA inventing **** under Raven Darkholme's direction, played by:



Uma Thurman.

Perfection, hands down. Uma would be also my choice, though, for a Rule 63 Longshot.

Well, the OP said we can fancasts people from any era, so mine will be pretty old-fashioned and I don't care.

I know he's too tall, but I've always liked Jeff Goldblum as Nightcrawler. I would really love it.



And there's just ONE person in the world to play Ricochet Rita: Karen Allen.

[Ricochet Rita]

As for Storm, there's only two. No discussion allowed.

Classic: Angela Bassett



Punk: Grace Jones (as wise Veggan Daddy said before)



To play Rogue I would want a young Judy Davis.

[CRaymond]

I've often said that my only choice for Longshot is Ewan McGregor. He's got the perfect mix of joy and melancholy (and loads of friendliness).

You're absolutely right about the joy v melancholy. I'm glad you're participating, because one of my ideas for MCUXM is a Mojo story that takes a LOT of liberties with setting. The particulars aren't important here, but "MOJO" is a state-run television channel for a sovereign island in the Indian Ocean. 80s Claremont seemed heavily inspired by George Miler and Terry Gilliam; I want to create a world where mutants are state-managed underclass used for service and entertainment. Westworld in Indonesia.

Soooo... I'm looking for Longshot in Bollywood.

[Ricochet Rita]

You're absolutely right about the joy v melancholy. I'm glad you're participating, because one of my ideas for MCUXM is a Mojo story that takes a LOT of liberties with setting. The particulars aren't important here, but "MOJO" is a state-run television channel for a sovereign island in the Indian Ocean. 80s Claremont seemed heavily inspired by George Miler and Terry Gilliam; I want to create a world where mutants are state-managed underclass used for service and entertainment. Westworld in Indonesia.

Soooo... I'm looking for Longshot in Bollywood.

This sounds great!!!

That plot seems kind of 'The most dangerous game' arc in Ultimate X-Men, which is my favorite no-Nocenti Longshot focused story.

I'm all for a not Western depiction of the Wildways...or any other setting, while you're at it. Actually, it's pretty random that Arize took caucasian people as the model for the slave race (sign of the times...). As well as that Longshot, supposedly a 'perfect specimen', is an aryan blond blue-eyed male (altough in Adams' preliminary sketches he was strawberry-blond and green-eyed, which would have been much better IMHO).

So, I would love an Asian cast. Unfortunately, I know zero about Bollywood

[CRaymond]

So, I would love an Asian cast. Unfortunately, I know zero about Bollywood

Me either :-( But you know the spirit of the characters, which counts for a lot. You can't just pick a smoldering bad boy from CW and tell him to be "Longshot".

I actually think the blond(strawberry or otherwise) is important to show other-ness. I'd just use a bottle and say it's "spliced-in".

[Jackraow21]

I feel like part of the appeal of the ANAD X-men when they debuted in 1975, and why they’ve endured to this day and appeal to so many, is the international nature of the team. The MCU to date, with some notable exceptions like Black Panther and Black Widow, has been largely America-centric. This is where the X-men could really differentiate IMO.

As such, I don’t really have a problem with updating the origins of Xavier and Magneto and thus making them from different ethnicities. Xavier as a South African who lived through apartheid, for example, and Magneto as a more militant survivor of some sort of ethnic genocide somewhere (e.g., a Croatian who survived the genocide perpetrated by the Bosnian Serbs in the 90s). Something like that would be a nice modern take on their origins, and at the same time enhance the global feel of the mutants’ plight and thereby the X-men’s international appeal. Just a thought.

[yogaflame]

Eternals will snatch the wig as far as international cast goes for the MCU, but it's really just a trend of the more globalized economy, something the 1975 team was in fact intentionally designed to capitalize on. That said, when they ditched Sunfire and Thunderbird died in their second story, it immediately lost a lot of that, especially when Kitty, Rogue, and Rachel firmly tipped the balance back to white Americans.

It will be tricky to do a true international cast, hitting all the various ethnicities, and not have to pass over some of the more fan favorites in an attempt to shift focus to some of the less storied international mutants. Particularly, there is no great Chinese character beyond Jubilee, who is so Americanized many people don't even know she's Chinese. Marvel proper had to dust off Shang-Chi to try to diversify the Avengers line, which is a little underwhelming next to the likes of Thor, Iron Man,and Hulk.
Xorn and Sway are two other options, but their stories are thin at best, convoluted at worst. Then again, that might be to their favor, so the MCU can take great liberties with them and make something interesting and new without offending a large established fanbase.

So what would a truly internationally focused X-Men cast look like?

[CRaymond]

So what would a truly internationally focused X-Men cast look like?

Start with continents, obv.

NA: Wolverine*
SA: Sunspot **
EU: Nightcrawler ***
AF: Storm
AS: Psylocke(Kwannon) ****
AU: Gateway *****

*Wolverine, as a Canadian, takes the North American spot. Cyclops, Phoenix, Iceman, in that order. This is kind of why I take a second look at the 80s animated idea of Wolverine being originally from Australia. As a near immortal, he could be FROM the Outback, and intimate with east Asian cultures and Madripoor from his young adulthood adventures prior to the WW1. Then he gets caught up in international conflicts, eventually being co-opted by North American Weapon Plus. This opens up North America for Cyclops, ideally Métis. If we agree to a Jewish Jean, we get a diaspora representation.

** Pretty little rich boy South American Sunspot serves as a Colossus/Angel proxy, but I don't care for it. I prefer Sunspot in the second gen, and with New Mutants coming out, so will many. Which is why I'm interested in casting a Venezuelan or Argentinian Enrique McCoy. Failing that, we're really missing South American mutants similar to our conversation about China, India, and the Middle East.

*** Nightcrawler is a German-Catholic Quasimodo fan of early American cinema with an iconic X-Man look. If we pivot his Mystique origin to Turkey/Iran, he could be a Pakistani-Muslim Quasimodo fan of Bollywood adventure films. This move occupies the Arab and South Asian regions, and opens the Europe spot to Colossus, whose links to Magik may or may not be important in coming years. I'm a big fan of Colossus as a Russian mutant Superman... but he also serves FAR better as a foil to Deadpool in his films. This opens Europe wide, but we certainly don't need more white faces.

**** Psylocke(Kwannon) is the most recognizable adult Asian face among the X-Men. I recognize that but I just don't think she's a compelling film persona. She's either not enough —or way too much of a character. You could insert Sunfire, but he's a fire character in a world with way too many of those, and he's toxic male in a world with Wolverine. My solution is to use banana girl Jubilee as the ingenue, make her parents first generation Chinese immigrants... and the surprise villain —a Chinese character. Chinese/Asian identity becomes a plot element.

***** I love Gateway cause he's old as hell and chooses to be silent in a soapy context full of young adults with communication problems. They should never have let go of him in the 90s and put him in a comfortable Stroman-designed layered outfit.

[Ricochet Rita]

Oh, speaking of Rachel, Sinead O'Connor was SO Ray!

[yogaflame]

Okay, here are the most important box offices by value:

USA-largest market
China-second largest market
Japan-huge drop off and the rest are more similar
UK
South Korea
India
France
Germany
Russia
Australia
Mexico

So, let's weight the first two countries heavily, then a little something for everyone else.

[CRaymond]

So, let's weight the first two countries heavily, then a little something for everyone else.

Very fair.

So even if we bank on a bunch of white American faces: Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma, Beast... we can still gain ground with Le Huanteng AKA Jubilee being the ingenue POV.

I KNOW you're not a fan of wild revisions, but I would not kill her parents. I'd go full-bore Kim's Convenience and have her burn their house down on TikTok live. Jubilee is missing, and the parents sell EVERYTHING with plans to return to China. On the way to the airport they stop by an abandoned mall and deliver bags and bags of cash to their teenage daughter, hiding from the cops. Tearful goodbye in subtitled Mandarin.

The third act hits high tension when Storm goes full goddess of destuction in order to devastate the island of Krakoa and the Master Mold built on its back. Prior to that, Wolverine and Jubilee learn that the Master Mold was build out of the remains of an old Japanese science research base built around 1940, and that the island seems to be alive. Prior to all THAT, Jubilee learned in Xavier classes that Wolverine was a mutant turned into a weapon of war. Just as Storm is about to destroy Krakoa, Jubilee realizes Krakoa is a Chinese mutant, taken from Nanjing by the Japanese and experimented on until he grew into a monster island. She uses her fireworks to create the Chinese symbol of family/school/home, and reminds the X-Men in what they should be about: teaching mutants there's a way out of a life of war, death & destruction.

Centenarian Chinese geomorph "Krakoa" joins the X-Men as their Hogwarts.

[Wiccan]

I doubt Marvel is gonna put that much effort into making sure the team is international. It's probably gonna be mostly american, they'll just cast some of the white characters as POC.

[From The Shadows]

These are the ones I wanted years ago.

Natalie Portman here is very close to Excalibur style Kitty with glasses but some waves and curls would make it perfect. And she's Jewish.



This guy aka Philip Seymore Hoffman sounds like how I imagined Hank/Beast sounding and he looks a lot like John Byrne and Andy Kuberts version of him. Magnolia made me think of Hank stuck in his lab trying to cure the Legacy Virus.





But alas he has passed away.

[Papa Moai]

James Norton as Brian Braddock
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Lily James as Betsy Braddock
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